Agriprocessors Filed Chapter 11; Many Employees Leave Postville

What’s
happening in
and around
Postville.......
Pancake brunch at
St. Paul
The Junior Youth at
St. Paul Lutheran Church
is hosting a “Made from
Scratch Buttermilk Pan-cake
Brunch” on Sunday,
November 16 from 8:30
a.m.-12:30 p.m. The menu
includes pancakes, sausage,
scrambled eggs, and more.
See details in the ad else-where
in today’s paper. All
proceeds go toward Junior
Youth Activities.
Football banquet
The parents of the senior
football players are hosting
the 2008 Football Awards
Banquet on Sunday, Nov.
16 in the fellowship hall of
St. Paul Lutheran Church.
The potluck supper begins
at 6:45 p.m. Those in atten-dance
are asked to bring a
dish to share and their own
table service. The public is
welcome to attend.
Clothing exchange
A winter clothing ex-change
is being held Satur-day,
Nov. 15 from noon to 3
p.m. at Turner Hall. Anyone
in need of winter clothes
may come and get what
they need. Anyone willing
to donate winter items can
bring them to the exchange.
Donations will also be ac-cepted
at the YMCA. For
more information in English
or Spanish contact Dawn
Gomez at 563-568-2204
or Cindy Shogren at 563-
864-9622. The exchange
is sponsored by Postville
Post-Raid Support Group
in conjunction with Alla-makee
County Substance
Abuse Prevention
Booster Club is
tonight, 11.12 PHS
Mott Lobby
Guys and Dolls
Hayley Dougherty and Jonathan Horns prac-tice
their lines for this weekend’s production
of the musical “Guys and Dolls.” The play will
be performed in the Fine Arts Center on No-vember
14, 15 and 16. The play is under the
direction of Kerris and Mike Dillon and Chris
Enayrt. The play is set in New York City, the
City that never sleeps. Come and enjoy!
The most recent plight to come out of
Agriprocessors, Inc. was the filing of Chapter
11 bankruptcy last Wednesday, November 5.
Plant spokespersons have indicated that the
May 12 raid is the primary cause of the ne-cessity
to file for bankruptcy. Under Chapter
11, the company will have time to restructure
their finances and continue operation. Those
in management did not, however, indicate
how they would be able to finance continued
operations. To date they have been assessed
approximately $10 million in fines for labor
violations.
Following last week’s developments,
many employees have given up hope of hav-ing
steady employment within the company.
That, along with the fact that many of them
are having difficulty with the property they
rent in the Postville community, has forced a
great number of new Postvillians to once again
hit the road. Workers, who came to Postville
looking for the “American Dream” following
the raid are from all corners of the world in-cluding
the Pacific island of Palau.
A few of those from Palau, including a
truck driver, said they feel confident about
keeping their jobs here.
The bankruptcy filing is an attempt to
stop a bank in St. Louis, Missouri, First Bank
Business Capital, from calling in a $35 mil-lion
loan to Agriprocessors. On Friday it was
agreed by both parties to give a liquidation
firm the authority to oversee assets.
There are several scenarios that could take
place as a result of the bankruptcy filing. They
include:
•The company could be sold to a new own-er.
A sale would, in all likelihood, generate a
cash flow that would help pay off creditors.
•Agriprocessors could stay in business,
restructure finances and make arrangements
to pay off debtors over months or perhaps,
years.
•Chapter 11 could be converted to Chapter
7 and the company could go out of business as
assets are liquidated to pay creditors.
The largest single debt listed was
$845,389.82 owed to Jacobson Staffing who
provided the plant with temporary workers
following the raid. Jacobson has pulled all of
its workers out of the facility within the last
week.
Rigoberta Menchu, Nobel Peace Laure-ate
from Guatemala, traveled from Guatemala
City to Postville last Saturday to express her
concern for and solidarity with the immigrants
who were arrested during the raid on May 12
at Agriprocessors. The event took place at St.
Bridget Catholic Church and was sponsored
by St. Bridget Catholic Church, St. Paul Lu-theran
Church, Northeastern Iowa Synod of
the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America,
American Friends Services Committee, Cath-olic
Charities, The Iowa Annual Conference
of The United Methodist Church, National
Plan of Latino/Hispanic Ministries of the
United Methodist Church and the NE District
of the United Methodist Church.
Menchu is an indigenous Guatemalan of
the Quiche-Maya ethnic group who has dedi-cated
her life to publicizing the plight and pro-moting
the rights of Guatemalan people. She
was awarded the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize and
the 1998 Prince of Asturias Award. She is the
author of “I, Rigoberta Menchu” and “Cross-ing
the Borders.” She is widely known as an
advocate of human rights and peace making.
She said, “The press coverage of the Post-ville
situation has turned a spotlight on the
way immigrants can be exploited by employ-ers
and treated poorly by the government.”
It was her intention that her trip to Postville
would help convince Americans that the USA
needs to change its policies regarding immi-gration.
Dressed in a costume of her native Guate-mala,
Menchu, 49, listened intently to several
immigrants who told their stories to the sev-eral
hundred who were in attendance.
Among those voicing their testimonies
were:
Pedro Arturo Lopez, 13, who told how his
mother was arrested at Agriprocessors, jailed
and later deported to Mexico. Pedro and his
family spent the next week hiding in the base-ment.
She also heard how children used danger-ous
machinery at the plant and worked long
shifts in unsanitary conditions.
Irma Lopez, one of those who testified,
asked Menchu to use her powerful voice to
plead for the immigrants. Lopez repeated
several times, “All we want to do is work!”
Lopez is one of many women who cannot
work because they are still wearing electronic
tracking bracelets.
About the bracelets, Menchu said, “They
are dehumanizing. I have never seen people in
chains like this. I plan to talk to human-rights
activists about this practice. I also hope to be
able to speak to your new president-elect Ba-rack
Obama. We must hope immigration laws
can be changed.”
Following a news conference with the
press, Rigoberta participated in a Ecumeni-cal
worship service. Others reflecting on the
plight of those affected by the raid were Sister
Mary McCauley, and Pastor Steve Brackett of
St. Paul Lutheran Church.
The day concluded with a silent walk from
St. Bridget’s Church to Agriprocessors, Inc.
and back.
Postville Herald-Leader
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
112 NORTH LAWLER STREET, POSTVILLE, IOWA 52162 • PHONE: 563-864-3333 • FAX: 563-864-3400 • SINGLE COPY: $1.00
News Email: phlnews@netins.net • • Advertising Email: phlads@netins.net
ESTABLISHED 1992 • COPYRIGHTED 2008 • USPS 006-515 • VOLUME 12 • NO. 46 • 16 PAGES
Monona
563-539-2061
Check
www.BIRDNOW.com
or call Toll Free
1.888.BIRDNOW
(247-3669) for inventory &
more information or
stop by our Dealership!
You’ve got to get to our
place, you’ll like the
way we treat you!
We’ll
Find it
For You!
Part of the BIRDNOW DEALERSHIPS
in Monona, Fayette, Cascade, Jesup,
Oelwein & Independence.
Buick, Pontiac, Cadillac, Ford, Lincoln &
Mercury available at our Oelwein location.
Tell us what you’re
looking for and
we’ll likely have it
at one of our other
locations.
Election results released;
Kuhse is new supervisor
Voters in Allamakee
County did not stray far
from the end result for the
state of Iowa or the nation in
the final percentages for the
2008 General Election held
Tuesday, November 4. Vote
percentages for most of the
state and federal government
candidates on the Allama-kee
County ballots fell well
within the same range when
area tallies were compared
to statewide and national re-sults,
with voter turn-out in
Allamakee County coming in
at just under 70% this year, a
total of 7,107 out of 10,183
registered voters within the
county casting ballots in this
election.
While most areas are
touting this year’s election
turn-out as the highest ever
recorded, Allamakee County
totals were slightly lower this
year in comparison to 2004’s
numbers, which touted a 77%
voter turn-out for that year’s
General Election. That higher
percentage stems from the
fact that there were nearly
1,000 fewer registered vot-ers
and a handful more voters
who turned out at the polls in
2004.
COUNTY OFFICES
Voters in Allamakee
County had two contested
races within their own level
of government, seeking to fill
vacancies in the Auditor’s of-fice
and on the Board of Su-pervisors.
In a close Auditor
race, Republican Pam Ben-jegerdes
of Waukon edged
out Democrat Colleen Gragg
of Waukon by 73 votes, 3,430
to 3,357, to assume the duties
of retiring County Auditor
Mary O’Neill.
The Board of Supervisors
race saw three candidates vy-ing
for one seat. Republican
Cloy Kuhse of Postville was
crowned the winner, garner-ing
2,957 votes to the totals
of 2,850 votes for Democrat
Dennis Paul of Lansing and
975 votes for Dan Bechtel
of Waukon, who was nomi-nated
by petition.
Incumbent Republican
Allamakee County Sheriff
Tim Heiderscheit ran unop-posed
in this year’s election,
garnering 5,696 votes in the
November 4 election.
FEDERAL, STATE
AREA DISTRICT RACES
Two races for seats
within the Iowa Legislature
on this year’s ballot each
resulted in new candidates
representing this area.
The District 8 State
Senate race proved trouble-some
for incumbent Re-publican
Mark Zieman of
Postville, as he was upset
in his bid for re-election by
Democrat Mary Jo Wilhelm
of Cresco. Wilhelm man-aged
a 52% approval rat-ing
among district voters
Election results
CONTINUED ON PAGE 12
Agriprocessors filed Chapter 11;
many employees leave Postville
Nobel Peace Laureate
travels from Guatemala
to express concern &
solidarity for immigrants
The Big 4 Poststar 4-H Club received a grant in the amount of $8,600. from the Up-per
Mississippi Gaming Corporation on October 27th at the Pink Elephant Room, Isle of
Capri Riverboat & Casino in Marquette, IA during a special awards presentation. The
money funded will go to refurbish the basement of Turner Hall where the Club holds its
meetings. Pictured from Front to Back and Left to Right Are: Kristine Schissel, Kimberly
Kraus, Avery Enyart, JoAnne Bodley, Jenna Schutte, Mryna Jones, Amber Schutte, Alex
Enyart, Nancy Turner-4-H Leader, Jerry Dumke-UMGC Board Member, Sara Schutte,
Justin Kruckenberg, and Becky Berns.
City Council hears fire truck proposal,
approves IIW contract proposal
Big 4 Poststar 4-H receives grant to redo basement at Turner Hall
The Postville City Coun-cil,
meeting in regular session
Monday evening, agreed to
have the engineering firm of
IIW to work out a contract
proposal between the City
and IL Norplex/ Micarta.
City employee Chris
Hackman explained that a
pretreatment agreement of
the wastewater from Norplex
is beneficial to both the city
and the business.
The contract will allow
Rigoberta Menchu, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate from
Guatemala, addresses the immigrants who were detained
during the raid at Agriprocessors during her visit to
Postville last Saturday. She is dressed in a colorful woven
skirt, blouse and headdress , attire that is traditional in
her homeland. A human rights activist in her country, she
won the Nobel Prize in 1992. She is known throughout the
world for standing up against repression of poor people in
Guatemala.
Jason Mueller received his Eagle Scout Award at a Court of Honor Sunday at St. Paul
Church. Jason is a member of Boy Scout Troop 41, sponsored by the Postville Lions Club.
He was a Cub Scout and earned the Arrow of Light. He served as Troop Assistant Patrol
Leader and Troop Senior Patrol Leader. He earned 21 merit badges on the way to Eagle.
He is pictured here with his parents, Barry and Sue Mueller.
Mueller receives Eagle Scout Award
IIW to draft a proposal and
draw up a five year contract
between the two parties. The
firm will also review the
city’s ordinance concerning
this type of water treatment.
Abby Cline, who intro-duced
herself as the “new
kid on the block” at Upper
Explorerland Regional Plan-ning
Commission discussed
the City’s Hazard Mitiga-tion
Plan. She told the coun-cil
they have a grant that
has been approved and they
have up to 35 months to com-plete
the Federally mandated
FEMA plan. She suggested
they wait between four and
five months before putting a
committee in place to begin
working on finalizing the
plan.
She added, that although
the plan is required by law,
it is very beneficial and can
mean money when the City
is faced with ice, wind, and
water damage.
Randy Plaht, represent-ing
the Postville Fire De-partment,
spoke to the group
concerning the purchase of a
new pumper/tanker. He said
the purchase will be a joint
effort of the Postville Fire
Department and the rural fire
district.
Currently, the commit-tee
has asked for bids from
three companies with prices
ranging from $246,000 to
$254,000.
Mayor Robert Penrod
agreed that the need is urgent
as the old trucks are just plain
wearing out, but said it would
be impossible to order a truck
until grant options have been
explored. He asked Plaht to
draft a letter explaining the
City’s urgent need for a ve-hicle,
which will aid in the
grant writing process.
An ordinance adopting
the City Code as the Code of
Ordinances was approved.
This action, as explained by
Attorney Anne Loomis, is
bookkeeping that updates all
changes that have been made
in the last five years and in-corporates
them into the code
book. A stop sign on Stone-man
St. was also approved.

Click tabs to swap between content that is broken into logical sections.

What’s
happening in
and around
Postville.......
Pancake brunch at
St. Paul
The Junior Youth at
St. Paul Lutheran Church
is hosting a “Made from
Scratch Buttermilk Pan-cake
Brunch” on Sunday,
November 16 from 8:30
a.m.-12:30 p.m. The menu
includes pancakes, sausage,
scrambled eggs, and more.
See details in the ad else-where
in today’s paper. All
proceeds go toward Junior
Youth Activities.
Football banquet
The parents of the senior
football players are hosting
the 2008 Football Awards
Banquet on Sunday, Nov.
16 in the fellowship hall of
St. Paul Lutheran Church.
The potluck supper begins
at 6:45 p.m. Those in atten-dance
are asked to bring a
dish to share and their own
table service. The public is
welcome to attend.
Clothing exchange
A winter clothing ex-change
is being held Satur-day,
Nov. 15 from noon to 3
p.m. at Turner Hall. Anyone
in need of winter clothes
may come and get what
they need. Anyone willing
to donate winter items can
bring them to the exchange.
Donations will also be ac-cepted
at the YMCA. For
more information in English
or Spanish contact Dawn
Gomez at 563-568-2204
or Cindy Shogren at 563-
864-9622. The exchange
is sponsored by Postville
Post-Raid Support Group
in conjunction with Alla-makee
County Substance
Abuse Prevention
Booster Club is
tonight, 11.12 PHS
Mott Lobby
Guys and Dolls
Hayley Dougherty and Jonathan Horns prac-tice
their lines for this weekend’s production
of the musical “Guys and Dolls.” The play will
be performed in the Fine Arts Center on No-vember
14, 15 and 16. The play is under the
direction of Kerris and Mike Dillon and Chris
Enayrt. The play is set in New York City, the
City that never sleeps. Come and enjoy!
The most recent plight to come out of
Agriprocessors, Inc. was the filing of Chapter
11 bankruptcy last Wednesday, November 5.
Plant spokespersons have indicated that the
May 12 raid is the primary cause of the ne-cessity
to file for bankruptcy. Under Chapter
11, the company will have time to restructure
their finances and continue operation. Those
in management did not, however, indicate
how they would be able to finance continued
operations. To date they have been assessed
approximately $10 million in fines for labor
violations.
Following last week’s developments,
many employees have given up hope of hav-ing
steady employment within the company.
That, along with the fact that many of them
are having difficulty with the property they
rent in the Postville community, has forced a
great number of new Postvillians to once again
hit the road. Workers, who came to Postville
looking for the “American Dream” following
the raid are from all corners of the world in-cluding
the Pacific island of Palau.
A few of those from Palau, including a
truck driver, said they feel confident about
keeping their jobs here.
The bankruptcy filing is an attempt to
stop a bank in St. Louis, Missouri, First Bank
Business Capital, from calling in a $35 mil-lion
loan to Agriprocessors. On Friday it was
agreed by both parties to give a liquidation
firm the authority to oversee assets.
There are several scenarios that could take
place as a result of the bankruptcy filing. They
include:
•The company could be sold to a new own-er.
A sale would, in all likelihood, generate a
cash flow that would help pay off creditors.
•Agriprocessors could stay in business,
restructure finances and make arrangements
to pay off debtors over months or perhaps,
years.
•Chapter 11 could be converted to Chapter
7 and the company could go out of business as
assets are liquidated to pay creditors.
The largest single debt listed was
$845,389.82 owed to Jacobson Staffing who
provided the plant with temporary workers
following the raid. Jacobson has pulled all of
its workers out of the facility within the last
week.
Rigoberta Menchu, Nobel Peace Laure-ate
from Guatemala, traveled from Guatemala
City to Postville last Saturday to express her
concern for and solidarity with the immigrants
who were arrested during the raid on May 12
at Agriprocessors. The event took place at St.
Bridget Catholic Church and was sponsored
by St. Bridget Catholic Church, St. Paul Lu-theran
Church, Northeastern Iowa Synod of
the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America,
American Friends Services Committee, Cath-olic
Charities, The Iowa Annual Conference
of The United Methodist Church, National
Plan of Latino/Hispanic Ministries of the
United Methodist Church and the NE District
of the United Methodist Church.
Menchu is an indigenous Guatemalan of
the Quiche-Maya ethnic group who has dedi-cated
her life to publicizing the plight and pro-moting
the rights of Guatemalan people. She
was awarded the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize and
the 1998 Prince of Asturias Award. She is the
author of “I, Rigoberta Menchu” and “Cross-ing
the Borders.” She is widely known as an
advocate of human rights and peace making.
She said, “The press coverage of the Post-ville
situation has turned a spotlight on the
way immigrants can be exploited by employ-ers
and treated poorly by the government.”
It was her intention that her trip to Postville
would help convince Americans that the USA
needs to change its policies regarding immi-gration.
Dressed in a costume of her native Guate-mala,
Menchu, 49, listened intently to several
immigrants who told their stories to the sev-eral
hundred who were in attendance.
Among those voicing their testimonies
were:
Pedro Arturo Lopez, 13, who told how his
mother was arrested at Agriprocessors, jailed
and later deported to Mexico. Pedro and his
family spent the next week hiding in the base-ment.
She also heard how children used danger-ous
machinery at the plant and worked long
shifts in unsanitary conditions.
Irma Lopez, one of those who testified,
asked Menchu to use her powerful voice to
plead for the immigrants. Lopez repeated
several times, “All we want to do is work!”
Lopez is one of many women who cannot
work because they are still wearing electronic
tracking bracelets.
About the bracelets, Menchu said, “They
are dehumanizing. I have never seen people in
chains like this. I plan to talk to human-rights
activists about this practice. I also hope to be
able to speak to your new president-elect Ba-rack
Obama. We must hope immigration laws
can be changed.”
Following a news conference with the
press, Rigoberta participated in a Ecumeni-cal
worship service. Others reflecting on the
plight of those affected by the raid were Sister
Mary McCauley, and Pastor Steve Brackett of
St. Paul Lutheran Church.
The day concluded with a silent walk from
St. Bridget’s Church to Agriprocessors, Inc.
and back.
Postville Herald-Leader
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
112 NORTH LAWLER STREET, POSTVILLE, IOWA 52162 • PHONE: 563-864-3333 • FAX: 563-864-3400 • SINGLE COPY: $1.00
News Email: phlnews@netins.net • • Advertising Email: phlads@netins.net
ESTABLISHED 1992 • COPYRIGHTED 2008 • USPS 006-515 • VOLUME 12 • NO. 46 • 16 PAGES
Monona
563-539-2061
Check
www.BIRDNOW.com
or call Toll Free
1.888.BIRDNOW
(247-3669) for inventory &
more information or
stop by our Dealership!
You’ve got to get to our
place, you’ll like the
way we treat you!
We’ll
Find it
For You!
Part of the BIRDNOW DEALERSHIPS
in Monona, Fayette, Cascade, Jesup,
Oelwein & Independence.
Buick, Pontiac, Cadillac, Ford, Lincoln &
Mercury available at our Oelwein location.
Tell us what you’re
looking for and
we’ll likely have it
at one of our other
locations.
Election results released;
Kuhse is new supervisor
Voters in Allamakee
County did not stray far
from the end result for the
state of Iowa or the nation in
the final percentages for the
2008 General Election held
Tuesday, November 4. Vote
percentages for most of the
state and federal government
candidates on the Allama-kee
County ballots fell well
within the same range when
area tallies were compared
to statewide and national re-sults,
with voter turn-out in
Allamakee County coming in
at just under 70% this year, a
total of 7,107 out of 10,183
registered voters within the
county casting ballots in this
election.
While most areas are
touting this year’s election
turn-out as the highest ever
recorded, Allamakee County
totals were slightly lower this
year in comparison to 2004’s
numbers, which touted a 77%
voter turn-out for that year’s
General Election. That higher
percentage stems from the
fact that there were nearly
1,000 fewer registered vot-ers
and a handful more voters
who turned out at the polls in
2004.
COUNTY OFFICES
Voters in Allamakee
County had two contested
races within their own level
of government, seeking to fill
vacancies in the Auditor’s of-fice
and on the Board of Su-pervisors.
In a close Auditor
race, Republican Pam Ben-jegerdes
of Waukon edged
out Democrat Colleen Gragg
of Waukon by 73 votes, 3,430
to 3,357, to assume the duties
of retiring County Auditor
Mary O’Neill.
The Board of Supervisors
race saw three candidates vy-ing
for one seat. Republican
Cloy Kuhse of Postville was
crowned the winner, garner-ing
2,957 votes to the totals
of 2,850 votes for Democrat
Dennis Paul of Lansing and
975 votes for Dan Bechtel
of Waukon, who was nomi-nated
by petition.
Incumbent Republican
Allamakee County Sheriff
Tim Heiderscheit ran unop-posed
in this year’s election,
garnering 5,696 votes in the
November 4 election.
FEDERAL, STATE
AREA DISTRICT RACES
Two races for seats
within the Iowa Legislature
on this year’s ballot each
resulted in new candidates
representing this area.
The District 8 State
Senate race proved trouble-some
for incumbent Re-publican
Mark Zieman of
Postville, as he was upset
in his bid for re-election by
Democrat Mary Jo Wilhelm
of Cresco. Wilhelm man-aged
a 52% approval rat-ing
among district voters
Election results
CONTINUED ON PAGE 12
Agriprocessors filed Chapter 11;
many employees leave Postville
Nobel Peace Laureate
travels from Guatemala
to express concern &
solidarity for immigrants
The Big 4 Poststar 4-H Club received a grant in the amount of $8,600. from the Up-per
Mississippi Gaming Corporation on October 27th at the Pink Elephant Room, Isle of
Capri Riverboat & Casino in Marquette, IA during a special awards presentation. The
money funded will go to refurbish the basement of Turner Hall where the Club holds its
meetings. Pictured from Front to Back and Left to Right Are: Kristine Schissel, Kimberly
Kraus, Avery Enyart, JoAnne Bodley, Jenna Schutte, Mryna Jones, Amber Schutte, Alex
Enyart, Nancy Turner-4-H Leader, Jerry Dumke-UMGC Board Member, Sara Schutte,
Justin Kruckenberg, and Becky Berns.
City Council hears fire truck proposal,
approves IIW contract proposal
Big 4 Poststar 4-H receives grant to redo basement at Turner Hall
The Postville City Coun-cil,
meeting in regular session
Monday evening, agreed to
have the engineering firm of
IIW to work out a contract
proposal between the City
and IL Norplex/ Micarta.
City employee Chris
Hackman explained that a
pretreatment agreement of
the wastewater from Norplex
is beneficial to both the city
and the business.
The contract will allow
Rigoberta Menchu, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate from
Guatemala, addresses the immigrants who were detained
during the raid at Agriprocessors during her visit to
Postville last Saturday. She is dressed in a colorful woven
skirt, blouse and headdress , attire that is traditional in
her homeland. A human rights activist in her country, she
won the Nobel Prize in 1992. She is known throughout the
world for standing up against repression of poor people in
Guatemala.
Jason Mueller received his Eagle Scout Award at a Court of Honor Sunday at St. Paul
Church. Jason is a member of Boy Scout Troop 41, sponsored by the Postville Lions Club.
He was a Cub Scout and earned the Arrow of Light. He served as Troop Assistant Patrol
Leader and Troop Senior Patrol Leader. He earned 21 merit badges on the way to Eagle.
He is pictured here with his parents, Barry and Sue Mueller.
Mueller receives Eagle Scout Award
IIW to draft a proposal and
draw up a five year contract
between the two parties. The
firm will also review the
city’s ordinance concerning
this type of water treatment.
Abby Cline, who intro-duced
herself as the “new
kid on the block” at Upper
Explorerland Regional Plan-ning
Commission discussed
the City’s Hazard Mitiga-tion
Plan. She told the coun-cil
they have a grant that
has been approved and they
have up to 35 months to com-plete
the Federally mandated
FEMA plan. She suggested
they wait between four and
five months before putting a
committee in place to begin
working on finalizing the
plan.
She added, that although
the plan is required by law,
it is very beneficial and can
mean money when the City
is faced with ice, wind, and
water damage.
Randy Plaht, represent-ing
the Postville Fire De-partment,
spoke to the group
concerning the purchase of a
new pumper/tanker. He said
the purchase will be a joint
effort of the Postville Fire
Department and the rural fire
district.
Currently, the commit-tee
has asked for bids from
three companies with prices
ranging from $246,000 to
$254,000.
Mayor Robert Penrod
agreed that the need is urgent
as the old trucks are just plain
wearing out, but said it would
be impossible to order a truck
until grant options have been
explored. He asked Plaht to
draft a letter explaining the
City’s urgent need for a ve-hicle,
which will aid in the
grant writing process.
An ordinance adopting
the City Code as the Code of
Ordinances was approved.
This action, as explained by
Attorney Anne Loomis, is
bookkeeping that updates all
changes that have been made
in the last five years and in-corporates
them into the code
book. A stop sign on Stone-man
St. was also approved.